What is up, fellow thermonuclear affers. I am a Dan Valley coming at
you with out my certified fantabulous co host, Grant Hughes, but I am
thrilled and honored to be joined by the also certifiably fantabulous Katie Heindel, one
of my favorite writers just of all time, but of course in the hoop
sector. Katie, how the heck are you doing? I'm doing really good,
and it's so nice to be back on. Man, it's been a
long time. It was too long since. I have a rule where I
try not to harass people more than once a year to come up because podcasts
are long, and like people, they got stuff to do. And I
can't believe it's been so long since I had you on, So thank you
for coming back on. You're always so gracious with your with your time and
answering me so quickly, so I'm very excited to get to catch up with
you. Of course, the pleasures all night. How was the off season
truding you? I think I saw, unless I'm misremembering, were you really
in Vegas for eleven days or non days? Whatever it was. I love
that it's becoming like an urban legend and the days are just there's more days.
Were you there for two months? Now? I was there for nine
days, which is a wild thing to say out loud. Usually my ideal
summer League time, which I feel like is already much longer than most people's
ideal summer League time is five days. Because it's like, I don't know,
maybe I'm just a sicko, but I'd like, I really like being
in the mix. But I was extended to stay through to some of the
w All Star stuff, which was super fun, but it was also kind
of invigorating. Though I felt like such a zombie by the end, and
I like I was such a decrepit husk. And then I was seeing like
friends who who cover the W coming in super like fresh faced and just like
ready for Vegas, and we're like, what's up? What do you want
to do? And I was like, I don't know, I live here
now, like follow me. But it was very fun. That's a really
long time to be in Vegas. I don't think i've as long as I've
been in Vegas, and I've never been to a Summer League. Years ago,
bach Report kept trying to send me and I was able just to shoot
it down, like I had no desire to go. Now they don't even
ask me. That's a lot. I think I was four or five days
as long as I've ever been in Vegas, and I guess if you have
stuff and work to do, it could deactually put nine days. It's a
really long fun somebody's got like that much work to do, though, Like
even the times I've been down and I've like been writing off like usually I
will write after, which is great, Like I went, I go down
typically with you who supports Canada, and they're just like, yeah, we
get it. Like you come back, you gotta to compress a little bit
and then you'll kind of do do all the writing that you've got to do
for us. But the times I have been there and like working off games
or you know, have other interviews kind of pop up, you still kind
of finish those, and like no one's ever like I don't believe that people
are like I'm just going back to my hotel room to work, Like no,
you're not. Yeah, especially the first like two to four days there
or whatever, because like it's very big. We'll call it networking. It's
probably networking. Is that working? It's wandering around running into people. Feels
like a weird summer camp, like a twisted summer camp. I think you'd
like it, even if you don't like Vegas. I feel like maybe you
should give another shot. Damn it would I should probably, And I do
want to meet up with a lot of the people I've met over the internet.
But at that point I'm just so burnt out from like and it happens.
I guess it doesn't happen during free agency anymore because free agencies over in
five seconds. So it used to happen during free agency, and so the
thought of juggling that with summer league always gave me anxiety. I was too
excited to talk to you that I totally butchers the intro Lady Heindel of the
Basketball Feelings sub stack fame. If you have not subscribed already, it is
I guess you do offer it for free, but it's worth every penny if
you just pay for it. Just one probably the single most unique like basketball
blog. I don't even know whatever we call it. I love it.
Do a series called exists I'm going to ask you about. You're also published
at Dime, where we have seen the NBA Summer vacation, just monitoring.
I'm gonna ask you about that as well. You're at Yahoo Sports Canada.
As you mentioned, you've been published all over the place. You might have
like the most bylines of at least anyone I've had on this show, Rolling
Stone, Flagrant Slam, just a great writer. If you have not checked
out Katie stuff before, I don't know what you're doing, So follow her
on Twitter at wt ev s. I'm assuming that's what evs right? Is
that right? I didn't put you that, so, yeah, I apologize.
I was too excited. I was like ready to get into it.
It's good, we're just catching up. You are writing a book, though,
which I wanted to ask you about, in so far as you're allowed
to talk about it. I had to google who the you know, the
John Jeremiah Sullivan. I didn't know what that was when my start was going
to be written in the vein of that. And so I'm assuming it's going
to be sort of like an essay style chapter separation, And are you able
just to give our listeners any insight into I guess just just what it's about.
I mean, I'll try my best. It's like it will be,
it will be very It will be similar to Basketball Feelings, and that I
think the basis of it is narrative nonfiction. So it's writing about basketball in
the way that I already do. And that's why I started the sub Stack
originally to not kind of lose wanting to write basketball in a way that,
you know, I feel like I have a lot of creative freedom and the
places I write for which I'm very grateful for, but I still like to
write a very specific kind of way. I don't know how you would call
like, I guess I like the LA Review of LA Review Books did a
review of Basketball Feelings Like a couple of months ago, which was still such
a wild thing to say, but it was. The writer wrote that it
was feeling as method, so it was like a pro chain basketball through the
lens of feeling as kind of the predominant way to translate it, you know,
and just like break it down and break it apart. And I feel
like that is how I have always approached basketball, and I think that's how
I write about it. So the book will be like that. Though I
want to say that I mean sometimes Basketball Feelings as essays. Sometimes it's like
a real dear diary situation depending on what's going on in my personal life,
you know, And as much as I want to like let people into that,
sometimes it's about specific, you know, instances that aren't all that great
in the NBA, because I do think, you know, it's important to
be critical about the NBA and the people in it when it's called for.
So I think the book, to me will be an extrapolation of that.
But I do want to do a lot of original some original reporting, and
I do you want to do some travel around it. I have some ideas
for things I've just always kind of you know, those like big picture stories
you always have in the back of your head that you're like, I really
want to do this, but I don't know where it would fit. Now
I kind of finally have a place where it would fit because it's just my
thing, and like the my publisher, it was very wonderful and very kind
every time I approached them, you know how this goes down as you would
like an editor, you're like, well, what do you think, like
could it be like this? They're like, that's you. You have to
figure that out. It's literally your book, is it? Like there's always
these big picture topics rolling around that I think anyone wants to write about when
they're in this business. Is it challenging at all finding things to write about
that won't become dated by the time the book goes out, because it feels
like that could be a challenge of this league moves so fast and changes so
constantly that you have to find a subject matter that is going to endure.
When this gets published in twenty twenty four, that's probably the goal, maybe
twenty twenty five, depending on it's usually about a year. I also used
to work in publishing, so I can say it's about a year from when
a transcript gets turned in when it actually, you know, hits the shelves
and gets published. So yeah, twenty twenty late twenty twenty four feels like
a generous, generous guess. But you kind of read my mind, and
that's actually something as someone who's just like I love reading and I've always like,
but I've always hated in books that kind of predate themselves, whether it's
like in fiction if there's too many references to be a pop culture or politics
at the time, same thing and nonfiction. With basketball, it's absolutely tough,
and I think that's something that I was like struggling with trying to figure
out what would stay evergreen and the things I want to approach in this.
So what I'm gonna do, what I hope to do, is be as
like less referential as I can to actual kind of game to game, season
to season stuff Like those beats I feel like are fine for the newsletter because
it can be you know, immediately responsive to things that happen in the NBA,
whereas a book I don't want a reader want. I want readers that
don't follow the NBA or basketball still be able to engage with it, you
know, just still find something interesting about it, to still be able to
read it. Like maybe it's like it maybe it's an essay that you'd read,
you know, in the New Yorker or like New York Times magazine or
like Slam or something, and you're just like, oh, I'm actually just
interested in this subject because of the way that it's being explained to me and
being told and I didn't know about it and now I know something about it,
or because you know, people are hopefully who pick up the book are
going to be predisposed to liking narrative nonfiction, so that will hopefully help me
a little bit. But yeah, I think for me, the subject matter
that I want to approach is going to be now predominantly based on people's personal
stories, Like those might be people in the NBA and kind of around basketball,
or kind of concepts and ideas in the game, but not so much
like a response or reaction to things that we see in a season, which
honestly is someone who covers the NBA that way is a little bit tricky to
like get my brain out of turn on right in that way. Yeah,
you had said or tweeted that you always wanted to write a book, which
I just I find the idea of writing a book so overwhelming. I'm impressed
by anyone who is going to do it. Was this the is there a
like an origin moment for this idea? Like did it come gradually or is
this something like is this the way that you wanted to like through this lens?
Is that something that you always wanted to write about at length in sort
of book form? No? Can you imagine if I was a kid and
I was like, yeah, you were growing up his three year old,
I would love to write so teric book about basket I think I just always.
I mean, like I said before, I know, I've always been
such a voracious reader as a kid. As a kid, I wrote like
fantasy stories, like fantasy novel like just for myself. But like that was
probably my first four way into like writing fiction. So like this project came
about actually like it. I thought it was fake. At first, I
thought I was being scammed. But I was in Houston covering the All American
Game, the McDonald's All American Game, and I got an email from Adam
Levy, who's a publisher co publisher at Transit. He'd said he'd read the
piece I wrote on the Dunk contest in the New York Times magazine, and
he'd gone back and read some other stuff. And I actually was familiar with
the series that the book's going to be a part of, which is called
Undelivered Lectures, which is a sub series that this independent publisher has, and
it's authors that are kind of given free rein to go off on like a
specific topic as if it was a lecture, you know, as if it
was like a speaking series. But you can structure that kind of however you
want. So some of them are pretty concise, some are more rangy,
and I have books from that series, which is why it was like such
a trip at first, and that immediately I was like, this is a
phishing scam real, which says more about like our disinclination to believe things you
know that are good and happened to us. But I never thought, like
when I started Basketball Feelings, I never thought it could be it would amount
to a book like maybe in my wildest most like private kind of secret dreams,
I thought, you know, I could write at length this way about
basketball, And that's probably the only way I'd want to write a book about
basketball, unless I was writing a book about like Kyle Lowry. That's probably
the only I want to write. Yeah, So yes, and no,
I guess like, yes, I knew I always wanted to write something.
It doesn't make it any less of a like daunting undertaking for sure. No,
I didn't know this would be the vehicle for it. Did Was it
always a because you said you kind of used to write the fiction stuff when
you were younger? Is it like, I know you were approached about this,
but when you were in your if you were to pick like how you
were going to go about writing a book, did you envision that it was
at some point eventually going to be nonfiction. As you like got into work
like this more, did you always wanted to skew towards fiction, Probably like
secret in my Secret Heart. Yeah, I wanted it to be fiction,
and I do write that, but mostly for myself. I haven't yet had
the guts to like put that out there other than NBA fan fiction, which
is something I still do every year now on Basketball Feelings, but started of
the Classical with David Roth is actually how I started writing about basketball. So
I guess it's a weird full circle. But I think, you know,
there's things I think we have to be honest about, especially if you're like
trying to get a toe hold, and whether that's like sports media or any
kind of industry, so certainly like media right now, but to recognize when
like maybe by accident, but like you've discovered a gap or like you've figured
out something that for whatever reason works and people respond to. You know,
Like when I started Basketball Feelings, I was like, maybe twenty people will
read this, and it's like it has like still something that I have to
pinch myself and be like this is wild, you know, like we're going
on upboards of three thousand subscribers to those letter now and it's still something that
like, you know, I try and take as serious as I can.
But I also am very heartened by the fact that it seems like there's an
audience for it. It seems like I figured out a niche. So like
if that niche could be a vehicle that can help me, you know,
do the thing I always wanted to do, then then it's great. I
feel like something I'm trying to get better at is being less like precious isn't
the word for it, but like recognizing your the result of your work over
time, right that it's like you are hopefully as a right. Especially you
know, if you're a writer building towards something, maybe that's not always a
book, but maybe it's like a bigger, broader, more substantial project that's
not just like writing blog to blog to blog, or like pitching you know
here and there. So I think this is all to I don't know how
well and like getting this point across, but I think it's like all to
say to get better at, like giving myself more credit, and that maybe
this wasn't the thing I always like thought I would set out to do.
But it makes sense to me now why this has happened. Yeah, I
think that makes a ton of sense, because I think even on a blog
to blog basis sometimes or just if you're saying, Okay, I need to
cover this NBA season, you can get so caught up in the process that
writers, for the most part of their own harshest critic. So that's not
going to help. But also you just get so caught up in the process
process you can't even take the time to step back and appreciate the product or
products that you've been putting out. And so to be so invested in like
a book that's the culmination of all these different things you're doing, is that
it really needs to be important to be able to take a step back,
like, holy fuck, I did this, because like it's not just like
you're not going from one thing to the next, it's like all those things
rolled into one over such an extended period of time. And so I,
yeah, I could imagine that that's probably difficult to do, but hopefully you're
able to do it because it's going to be great. Basketball feel is great.
But I think you mentioned though, some of the bigger picture stuff is
as a struggle. Are there any other like lessons learned or anecdotes or you
know, optacles or whatever that you can share from like the process so far
that it's like any writing. I think a part of me was like,
well, I've got to wait for like the perfect conditions to like sit down
and write something. And to me, that's like being somewhere that's like isolated
and removed from everyday life. But sometimes it's everyday life that I find the
most generative I think of writing, especially like the kind of writing that this
book will be, because it is in the vein of basketball feelings, you
know, like it is something that when I've had opportunities to travel for basketball
and like for work in that sense, I always find it like I want
to write a ton off of that, not just like the thing I traveled
for, but the trip itself and kind of like the momentum. So I
found that where I'm maybe my inclination is to like complain and be like I
need absolutely quiet, like perfect conditions to write this book. That's not the
way that it's getting done. I still write long form like by hand and
notebooks when I get stuck, Like I do that for just like anything I'm
writing. But that's really coming in handy with this. I'm not the best
at like bouncing ideas of people. I'm kind of like I want to finish
one. I want to finish it all and then like you know, show
it back to my publishers. So I'm trying to get better at like sending
stuff here and there and being like what do you think, but also recognizing
that, you know, as I said earlier, this is an completely like
self guided thing. Like the editorial process and writing a book is so different
than maybe going back and forth with an editor on a piece like a profile
piece, you know, or or a feature anything like that. I think
there's a little bit more It's funny, there's like a bit more gravity,
and like I'm not saying this is deserved. But when I've like approached people
for interviews or like to approach people to ask them to help, like for
things about this book, the minute you say it's for a book, people
are like, oh okay, which again, like I'm not saying that's more
deserved or not. That more I think has to do with people's perception of
like the seriousness of writing a book versus the seriousness of writing like you know,
a fifteen hundred word article, right, But somebody's like in gay performance
or something. I'm not like one is not more important than the other.
They're just two completely different things. Otherwise, I'll have to like report back
because I still have a lot more writing to do. Well. I am
excited for it. Our listeners should be excited for it. I can't wait
to when it's out and read it. I wish you the best of luck
as you go through the process. I'm sure it will be absolutely dealer though.
Basketball Feelings we've already touched on a little bit, but I wanted to
ask specifically about Exits, which is the series you do every year where you're
covering these teams. It's it's like it's not really a you're covering their past,
their president, and their future. And it's very on brand for what
Basketball Feelings is. But I'm just curious, especially when you're incorporating these like
personal anecdotes that add this fantastic twist and you're able to tie everything together.
It was there like a like a genesis for writing this type of series,
Like a moment where it's like you identified that, oh this could work,
or did you just happen to try it with, because I don't even know
what the first one was that ever went up, or necessarily how many years
you've been been doing it. It was there like a genesis of Okay,
like I want to do this type of series and cover it this way because
I think it's very unique, like it's on brand what basketball feelings is.
But then it's also very unique to like even for basketball feelings. I like
that everyone's like, oh, it's I ran for Basketball feelings, and then
I'm like, can you tell me what that brand is because like I don't
know, I don't know what it is. But the I think like the
impetus for exits came through actually a series that I wrote for Time during the
PA pandemic called The Year None, and I still am really proud of those
pieces. But those were centered on players who because it was like it was
when the season was suspended for COVID, and it was kind of reimagining or
looking at a bunch of different trajectories of guys like Lebron was one, Jimmy
Butler was one, Kyle Lowry was of course one. I think the Grizzlies
then the team was one. Chris Paul was one, but it was like
what they were going to be. And then the pandemic happened in the season
suspended, and it was kind of like imagining what could have happened, not
in a fictionalized sense, but just trying to trace, you know, if
they had kept going kind of in this trajectory that they'd been on, what
could have happened. And I really liked that. It was like also it
was kind of a more flexible creative time because there was no basketball going on,
so you know, like Diamond, like Martin Rickman and the whole crew
there are always been so supportive of just like any idea I'm ever, like,
how about this, They're like sure. But that was certainly way more
in the vein of what basketball feelings is probably any and any other like publication
I've written for. But I really liked it. And then I think that
probably gave me the same idea the first time I did exits, which is
this is the third year, so it's three seasons. I started trying to
think what the first one was. It might have been the Net the Net.
It might have been that Nets team because I made a really bad graphic
for it, because it was like kind of centered on West Side Story,
so it was like a it was like west a still from like the old
movie West Side Story, and like Kevin Durant, that would have been the
Kevin Durant Nets team, right, I think so anyway, But I was
like in the same vein a bit convenient because it's like, okay, seasons
over. I know Exits will carry me through the off season, just with
the way that I released them like once a week, right, So it's
like that would give me something to write on in the summer. I also
like the idea of like giving a little bit of extra time to every team,
especially in this sad way, it's like Exits is about teams getting beaten.
Like it's about teams and it's like about their seasons ending to them prematurely
and exploring why that happened. You know. Sometimes it's about one specific player,
sometimes it's about the team. There's usually like beats of history and kind
of unique history of that region, which I always just like going down wormholes
to kind of figure out. They'll be like cultural aspects. There's some ties
to art, you know, architecture in a couple of them. I can
think this year just like whatever, I'm kind it's an architect here unless I'm
misremembering. Yeah yeah, And then like as you mentioned, sometimes it's like
what's going on with me? Weirdly I can figure out a parallel and not
by forcing it, like I try never to force it, but to try
and find a parallel to that team, because sometimes it's on a theme like
with the six Ers one that I just did, it was kind of like
Joel Embiade as Prometheus, but it was also about this like human inclination to
persevere when sometimes actually you just want to sulk, like Embid does. And
so that I had, like I had plenty of examples at the time for
that personally that I tossed in there and tied them together as best I could.
But I think to me, like we and again like you know this,
We've talked about this. So everything is so accelerated in NBA media,
especially like you don't like we don't even really get an off season anymore,
like now is the off season, but like people are still you know,
super fevered to hear about the trades that are still left to be done and
want to predict like the season to come, like there is really no downtime
anymore, and everything is just like you have these moments and then you forget
them, like sometimes the next day, sometimes within the same day. So
I think the idea of exits to me was also trying to sit with something
a little bit longer, and by virtue of the fact that, like I'm
writing these as teams get eliminated, but the playoffs move faster than I do.
So like only now am I getting into the conference finals right right in
the current exit series, I like the Lakers will be the next team up.
So that's like, you know, a lot of this is now,
like in the for the NBA, like ancient past for us, like it
is not really so long ago, but it's like a nice exercise. I
think it's trying to slow things down. Reflection is important too, because,
as you said, it's not even just the acceleration, it's everything's about looking
ahead. Is that a lot of the coverage I do, I find myself
maybe not so much on the podcast, but it's writing about things that are
going to happen, not living in the moment or electing on what just happened.
And so it's cool to see, like because even when we do we
do like a look ahead series here every year where we do forty five to
ninety minutes on every single team gets their own podcast. The numbers on those
things are terrible. Partly no one wants to hear ninety minutes worth of the
Charlotte Hornets, but like I feel like it's it's instructive for me going into
the season, Like even that's about looking ahead, and so very rarely do
we get the chance too, And that's part of what makes it unique.
Is very very rare. Is there like this extended reflection on what just happened
and what it could mean. I actually do think that is important, and
it feels a space that doesn't really exist, and it feels like today's sports
media lexicon. Yeah, I think everything is you know, driven by Unfortunately
now I don't want to say everything. I'm not trying to be cynical,
but like aggregation and what's gonna get picked up and share around And there's not
a lot of room even for longer editorial, which I think is a bummer
because that's the stuff I love reading the most, you know, especially if
it's a player profile that's like doesn't necessarily have to be tied to anything within
the season. You know, it's like sometimes you just want to read a
long prayer player profile though PJ. Tucker, I'm still waiting to read that
one. Maybe I'll write it. But like, you know, there's some
guys who are just like or you know, athletes in general, where you're
like, I'm just fascinated by this person. It doesn't have to be tied
to anything. I get why it has to be for the sake of that
outlet, you know, wanting to get engagement with that story. But I
think there's always room to kind of slow things down and look at things,
especially in the NBA, when it's like you forget more stuff than you remember
in a season, like something that happened this year, like in a video
or a podcast listening to or somewhere like, oh, like damn, that
happened like three seasons ago, and they're like, no, that was two
months ago, right. If you do ever write the future on PJ.
Tucker, can you maybe ask him what would be his dream flavored pancake yea
that he would build. I really appreciate the answer. Yeah, who ditch
year? Specifically, who has been the most challenging team so far to write
an exit for the Hawks I have just unfortunately, I have to say,
are always challenging to me because I don't find that much compelling about the Hawks.
I'm sorry to say to Hawks fans. I want to, but I
feel like they've been repeating sometimes I just get because it's like this is the
third year now, so a lot of the teams that I'm seeing repeat.
I know that they are technically good teams because they keep making it to the
playoffs, but the reason they keep falling out is usually the same thing as
a season before. Certainly it's that case with the Sixers. The Sixers I
am like very fascinated by, even though in that Sixers exits and I'll repeat
here, like someone wants unsubscribed for meske Well Feelings and you can say why,
like I don't ever usually try and read these things because I'm like,
it's okay, like I don't need to know. You can unsubscribe in peace
if you'd like to. But I read it once and someone just wrote anti
Sixers like that I was, and I really thought about it. I was
like, am I like, I don't think I am. I think that
they're so like their problems or like the problems they come to repeat. Are
so obvious to me that it's very fascinating as to why, because it speaks
I think, to a lot of like human fallibility at its core, you
know, and just this urge to always be like maybe we'll get them next
year, like this kind of goldfish brain situation. But the Sixers are always
challenging. Uniquely for that, the Hawks were just because again I had to
try and find I found this year especially like a toe hold to dig into
something. Who else some I try not to be too precious about teams that
I actually root for, you know, and like enjoy writing about. I've
avoided some of that this year because this year I've asked guests to contribute.
So, like I knew I would have a hard time with the Heat spoiler
alert, I have someone else writing the Heats. But just as I knew
I would like, I love that team. I love so many individual athletes
on that team that I would probably it would probably not be fair. It
would probably just be like a glowing like like almost fictionalized review, which I'm
sure Heat fans would like love to read. But I don't really think that's
kind of like fair gift in the way that I've treated these things. Now.
I found the Warriors last season hard to write because I mean in the
Warriors one, but like no that the Warriors went last year. Yeah yeah,
yeah, See this is like talking about but like there's also something about
perfection that's difficult to write about. You have to try and find the cracks
in something that seems at the surface like perfect and like a juggernaut and you
know, a legacy. So that was more about like what is legacy and
what can that mean and like how much we want these things to kind of
topple. Teams get to this level and then we're like you've been good enough
for long enough and now we'd like to see you fall. So that was
more of that. But I can usually find I can like rev myself up.
The Bucks have been tough because like the Bucks are such like a workaday,
blue collar team that it's like there is personality there. I'm not saying
that individual guys don't have it, but as a whole, like Underbud,
that team was just like I don't know, man, like they just they
are basketball robots and that's not that much fun to write about. I can
see that I cannot recommend it enough. Basketball feelings. Go subscribe to it.
The link will be in the podcast and YouTube descriptions, and check out
all the exits that you can go back and read. They are compelling stuff.
I can't have you on and not ask about the Raptors. And it
worked out because I was gonna ask you about the Raptors anyway, but then
you wrote about them for Yahoo Sports Canada. Is there like from afar it
seems like they are very much going through an existential crisis. Is that accurate
or an oversimplification? Like do they maybe just have a better idea of what's
going on there than the people like myself who are thirty thousand feet away are
able to grasp. Now, that feels correct, and I think I would
have maybe like pushed against that right up until the end of this past season
and then kind of watching them really like first I was like, Okay,
they're just taking a casual approach to the offseason. They're just having a dovetail
into it. They're going to figure out the coaching thing first, because like
it was pretty quick, like they fired Nick Nurse and then it's like,
Okay, they're ready to make a change. They recognize Miss I came out
and said, you know, he was there was a bigger disconnect than he
even imagined. He and Bobby Webster did not like watching this team play basketball,
as most Raptors fans also did not like watching the team play basketball this
year. He kind of admitted to like having too much of a hands off
approached this past season and that there were riffs and kind of divides within the
culture or team or how you want to look at it. That also started
to clarify as the offseason war on. But like wearing on I think is
the right word, because the Nick Nurse decision was like that was the most
direct responsive decision they've had all summer and since then, I feel like my
word is just stalling. And I'm always very like I like to catch these
things by saying like we don't know, we know maybe a fraction of what's
actually going on in the front office. Sometimes trades are taking a long time
because like most everything is in place and there's one weird little thing that just
like time needs to figure out, or like they can't decide yet. You
know, maybe someone is just like waiting. That's fine too, Maybe someone's
on vacation, that's great. But with the Raptors. I will say it
really feels like stalling. When I wrote about for Yeah Who Sports was that
I feel like they keep trying to bank on these anomalies that work for them
in the past, like a Fred van Fleet, you know, like this
undrafted kind of like Prodigy who came up through nine oh five, you know,
like their G League system with Pascal Siakam, like two soup those guys
are. Those guys are like we talk a lot about like generational players,
but we don't in this sense, but like those two are so specific in
that like that's not going to happen as a big siren goes by. That's
not gonna happen again for a really long time. The NBA just doesn't really
built that way. So there, but the Raptors had such success with that
for such a long time that I think they're like, well, we could
just do that again, you know, and like you look at and this
was not to disparagem Marquisnoel, who I've really enjoyed watching play and I think
like is going to be such a fam favorite whether he plays for nine or
five or the Raptors. But the team's like, you know, I've heard
from the team of them being like, yoh, we see a lot of
parallels to him and Fred van Bleet. It's like, I get why you
want there to be parallels, but it won't be the same thing for you.
And like, you know, firing Nick Nurse was necessary, I think,
but you've brought in a coach now, and again I think it's Darko
Rakovitch, who seems like the most positive person that the Raptors are in dire
need of, like a coach of that caliber. But you bring in a
coach who has some international experience but doesn't have any maybe like head coaching experience
in the NBA. He has assistant coaching experience in the NBA. But like,
again, you're kind of banking on this en lightning to strike twice because
it's what's worked for you in the past, Whereas like I wish the Raptor's
methodology was just like maybe a little bit more practical at this point and with
some realism. So I think existential crisis works. I think Stalin is probably
the other easier thing. I think they were a bit blindsided by Fred leaving,
But again I think that's like it's pretty troubling if a front office misjudges
or misreads a situation by someone who's been that close to the franchise for so
long. You know, like Fred's motto, his like copyrighted slogan is bet
on yourself. Yeah, he was always going to do that. Yeah,
It's just it's weird how they've kind of boxed themselves into what was considered invention
where it felt like they had like this very creative vision and then they boxed
themselves into it. And the moment for me was at the trade deadline where
they gave up a top six protected pick for Yacca Peartle, where it just
was like, Okay, this franchise feels like it's spinning its wheels and doesn't
necessarily know what it's doing. And of course the FEV departure is the big
one, just because okay, you now let the guy who assisted on a
third of Yaco Peardle's buckets just leave for absolutely nothing, and as flawed as
he was as a quote unquote point guard, it is just so instrumental to
what you were doing and is not a player. This isn't even like it's
more egregious than flipping Kyle Lowry for the precious that you were returned just because
Fred van Fleet is like in his heyday still even if people were disappointed how
he played last season, So I don't understand what the hell is going on
there. I've mostly been inclined to just like give the benefit of the doubt
to MASSI point being, I picked Precious to win most Improved Player leading into
this sea that went the complete opposite direction. I feel like this is a
much less compelling question now that Fred van Lead is left. But if you
were running the Raptors, is they're like and I don't mean to oversimplify it
into three choices, but if it's start over around Scotti, continue this middle
build however you want to phrase it, or eventually double down on what you
have in place now, Like is there a preferred route that you would take
this team if you were running it. This is tough because I'm always a
bit pragmatic when it comes to rebuild or bust kind of mentalities, because I
think what always gets lost in that is like the team's bad. Now if
you rebuild, it's going to be much worse for a much longer time.
Right that said, Like you gotta look at you know, somebody like o
Gianna nob he's going to be a free agent next summer. Is he gonna
also walk for nothing? You know? Like and I would think that somebody
like og wants to go or be on a team that has a compelling and
clear plan for him, and Toronto doesn't really have that right now. I
think just as like an athlete who's like in their prime, and it is
like I want to compete, I want like the most out of my career.
It's probably not here. I don't know what's going on in this place.
So I think, to me, the situation is more like you got
candid this half rebuild you didn't really want when Fred didn't resign. You kind
of now have to see it all the way through. You're making things pretty
bad for one of your like for your franchise cornerstone, Pascal Siakam, who's
left by just kind of floating his name around. Yeah, Pascal. Like
I do have a column called NBA Summer Vacation Watch, but sometimes it is
it overlaps with like the real basketball and that Pascal extended his vacation and didn't
come to Summer League rightfully, so because it's just like why would I I
don't know what's going on here, like I might get traded. There's no
hurry for me to get home to Toronto, even though he said time and
again like this is where he wants to play. So you know, the
unemotional part of me is like, yeah, you finish, finish the rebuild,
finish this thing that like you didn't want to start, but like you're
in it now and if you wait, you're just going to be a mediocre
team in a conference that's getting so much better. Like like I get you
know, I am a diehard Pistons supporter, but I also look at a
team like the Detroit Pistons and it's like they may be a playing team this
year, if not next year, and like where are the Raptors kind of
and this I mean that to say, like the Pistons and the Magic are
are who we kind of like anchor the Eastern Conference in right, But it's
like those teams are actually improving. They are and like Magic too, like
they are improving. I don't know that it's like a Magic to Sacramento King's
kind of parallel this season, but they're on the way up. And like
you have to make moves and make compelling and moves that makes sense for your
franchise and like what you can deliver with the personnel you have, and also
like if you're trying to attract, to be realistic about like who you can
attract and who you can land. And right now, I think Toronto's in
a weird middle ground where like they're not really going to be that competitive this
season as is, So I don't really think like doubling down and like running
it back makes any sense because what are you running it back to. You've
lost significant like momentum and talent at skill and just like fundamentally, I don't
know how this roster works. It's going to be clumpy looking. I think,
yeah, when you look at their projected starting five, it's Og and
and Obi's office on your best shooter, which is like kind of harrowing to
think about. I know, he's turned into a competent shooter, but like,
yeah, but that's a lot to put on him, and it's like
you don't really have the support around him. So I mean, for me,
it's like if you can retain Scotty and Og, that is a great
point to rebuild from. But like this this thing of like retooling or adjusting
or just making small, you know, tinkerings kind of here and there,
which Toronto's been doing for seasons. Now. I think since Empa, you
know, it's not working, like it isn't working anymore, and like you
can't. The league is such now that you can't get incrementally better every season
or you're just gonna get left behind. And I'm totally with you, and
I think I just think Fred Leaving just sewed it like you need to kind
of start over. The pick they over the Spurs complicates that a little bit.
But I was very much in the like camp of no double down and
try and get better. But there was there's been the past years something very
Portland Trailblazers ask where they've been unwilling to make the big swing. It's we'll
give up a protected pick for Jaka Peardle. We're gonna bring in Gary Trent
Junior. Will make that trade. But it was never the Okay, we
believe in this talent, but we're not going to actually act like it type,
you know. And I was convinced that they were eventually going to make
a bigger swing, and I'm just you're obviously not. You can't be convinced
anymore. And so i'd be with you now, but I wasn't. I
think we all and definitely it happens with me that we romanticize rebuilds. I
don't think that they were actually at that point until they let Fred and Fleet
leave specifically, we're just like, Okay, well now what are you guys
even doing here? I mean, I think they kind of started. It
was almost like a slow burn, I think, since they were in their
mind trying to enter the Jannae sweepstakes a little bit when like it was the
season that they let Marcasol you know, in Search of Vaca both walk because
those guys wanted two year contracts and they were only prepared to give them one
year contracts. And I think that's when you start to drain your talent and
you drain a lot of your identity as well. In that you you've and
you haven't like rebuilt that back. That's to me where it started, which
is also what I wrote about in that story. But like I think that
was like the slow decline, you know, Yeah, that's a great point.
That was like kind of the almost quick deterioration or slower deterioration of like
that Championship Corps like just losing all that and they all went to LA basically,
and it just feel like they've never fully recovered from that, as as
tantalizing as they've been at times. So I've gone from the point where I
was just found them very compelling and I'm like morbidly curious as to what's going
like where It's not I'm not watching out of joy or like genuine curiosity,
it's it's just born in this weird place of just morbidity. Yeah, you're
just like how does this work? Like how does this thing get up and
move around? Like what does this team look like on the floor. That's
where I'm at, And I wouldn't even hazard to guess what happens next,
just because I never would have predicted that they let Fred van Ley leave for
nothing? And now it's like were they going to do the same thing with
og and Norciakam, which is sos just I have no idea what to expect
from them anymore. It's just completely where I'm at. But I'm with you,
I wouldn't expect them to be very Yeah, I wanted to ask you
about some of your offseason and superlatives so far, and I'll begin with which
team do you find most compelling for whatever reasons ahead of next year? Right
now? I mean I already like floated the Pistons, but I feel like
that's so personal and like I might be the only person on that island.
I love that call peof a diehard Pistons supporter. I don't know that.
I definitely did not know that I am. I've the Pistons are probably why
I like Dennis Rodman and that era of Pistons basketball, followed by Rashid Wallace,
Like those were the teams that made me fall in love with NBA basketball.
Okay, yeah, like one just like this really super ostentatious, like
really you know, larger than life kind of bravado. The other like this
true underdog story, which is like I'm always chasing that I think in my
favorites within the NBA. So and then I don't know, I just I
just hung on. I think also as a as a horse girl, as
a kid who was a horse girl, the Pistons like demon horsehead jersey that's
just burned into my brain. It's like my favorite jersey of all time.
Man, the teal ones from them, I'm not I think we recycle ideas
too much, but like that is when you see those jerseys, that's like
a real kick in the nostalgia field. Yes, anyway, not the Pistons.
I think the Clippers are actually very compelling to me, which is funny
because as you said, they are kind of like Toronto two point zero,
like that's they've just stolen the blueprint and you know what, if it works
and you can get those guys, great. But I also am a diehard
Russell Westbrook supporter, and I feel like, again, you're always like what
could this be the one? Like could this be the one where it works?
And like could this be the fit? But a part of me feels
like maybe yes, because I think Kawhi Leonard is so technically skilled and proficient
and just like wants to only play basketball that he can almost balance or maybe
deflect, some of Westbrook's propensity to just be himself at all costs at all
times. I also think it will just be a pretty fun team to watch.
People felt that way last year about the Clippers, but I do feel
that way this year. Yeah, Clippers. There there's something weird about them,
which is why they fascinate me. Where it's like using lowad management as
an example, when we talk about it, everyone seems to deliver the qualify
of that well, players want to play, it's the teams that are making
these decisions. Whatever's talked about with the Clippers, it's always phrases like Kauai
and Paul George don't want to play, and like Tyl is mad about it,
and I find that so strange. And then there's the whole lingering future
of like Tyler has a few years left on his contract, but everyone thinks
that he's just eminently gettable. Now you're throwing rust into the mix where he
is. I gained a new appreciation for him watching him in last year's playoffs.
He's like the perfect person to have when you just don't have enough,
because when he's himself, that's someone who kind uplift what feels like a lower
floor. I just don't know how he functions within a higher like ceiling dynamic.
And it's well, is this the perfect situation for him? Because apparently
these two other stars aren't going to play in a bunch of games, maybe
by their own choice. I just they confuse the hell out of me,
And they want to add James Harden into the equation and it's like, all
right, Russ is there. That didn't end to well in Houston. They're
just they're weird. They're weirder than any team with so much talent should be.
To me, they're very weird. Then, like the herded thing feels
a little bit to me like they're just throwing money at this at it like
the fit doesn't really make any sense. And I also don't think unless you're
like I was gonna be like, unless you're envisioning Paul George's out a lot.
But then like James Harden has also shown that I don't mean he's he
will physically be in the game, but he is mentally checked out right,
which is like one of the most frustrating things to watch about him, because
you're like, you're so when you're good, you're like, it is effortless
and it is like a pleasure to watch you play basketball, but then there's
some days where you're like, you just don't want to be there, And
I understand that too, Like I've also felt that not in basketball, but
they could certainly use his playmaking, but the idea of him to like a
team that doesn't play fast to begin with, which is why Russ is intriguing
because he can inject pace into them is just yeah, I don't. This
might be a situation of, well, if we can really get him for
what we can offer, which isn't really much, even if they're putting everything
on the table, well then we might as well just do it because it's
still James Harden and so why not try it out. That's what this almost
feels like. If they trade Rest, then I'm out on the Clippers.
Like, if Rest is part of that trade, then I take back.
I'd be wild if he gets flipped to the trade deadline for Hard and that
would be even see those two on the same team again for a third time
would just be weird. Clip again weird. That's that's the Clippers that were
But weird is intriguing. Weird is intriguing. So between the end of last
season and now, which team have you changed your opinion on? Whatever it
initially might have been the moment season and now you think I would have a
good answer for this Because of writing exits about most of these teams, I'm
feeling most of my opinions have said the same. I've not I think Dallas
is still going to be bad. I don't I love that, Like I
don't care or about the Mavericks. I think the Nuggets will be great and
kind of like steadily the same the Lakers. I don't know what my opinion
is, but it hasn't It's just like this is still a mess that hasn't
changed. I'm just running through teams now. Maybe the ohad no, no,
you're the Boston Celtics throw you for like a whirl with everything that they
did, just sort of getting rid of their cultural backbone for Christoph porzingis of
all people. Yeah, I mean to me, that's like a bone headed
move really, like I don't know, I've seen like, oh, he
raises their ceiling. I don't really care, Like I don't I could.
I care so little about christophs porzingis playing basketball because we also haven't seen like
since he left the nixt him do that like to Eddie team and I mean,
like the Mavericks have their own huge problems, but like you know,
he didn't contribute there at all. I think in a way that Boston thinks
he can contribute. And you've also brought in this like to me, like
the thing people are keep weirdly like skirted over is the fact that like incredible
rape allegations against this guy that like didn't they just went away because people stop
talking about them. Yeah, yeah, but you've gotten rid of someone who
was like the pillar, as you said, of your like great culture.
Like as much as like people who aren't Celtics fans hate admitting there's like a
Celtics culture, but like he was it. And now you've bounced him to
a team that actually I think he'll do really well on and we'll embrace him
like with such open arms. I think he'll be like such a great presence
and kind of exactly what they need. Maybe you've done him a favor,
but like you've you've gutted, you've got it. The chemistry of your team
and your franchise and also just like kind of a cornerstone of how that team
plays basketball is now gone. So like this kind of gritty edge that you
at is gone because Christaps Porzingis does not play basketball that way. Yeah,
and even great year last year from Porzingis, but just Marcus, like you're
at a net deficit of playmaking like men, Marcus smart, your defense is
less versatile too, And so just even from the basketball purely basketball perspective.
I'm still struggling to see how it even increases their ceiling. Like it feels
like a very you're banking on him to be what he was for Washington last
year, but better than that and in a different way, and it just
feels like a very weird gambit to make. And so I didn't like to
trade for the Grizzlies either. I was in the minority. I think Marcus
smart. I just I didn't love it for them. But Boston confuses the
hell out of Yeah, it might be Boston just because of that like confusing
move. But the only thing is like when you were like what he did
for the Wizards, like that's the Wizards, Like I think you have ended
up too. It's not like he carried them like a top whatever they draft
ninth year. The team is now like self and it's like blowing itself up
at like out of plus like it to austerity, like to stay alive.
Right, that team is now blowing kind of itself up from the inside,
and like he just made them look better because like look around at what's there.
I don't know, just for a team like Boston that's going to constantly
be playing or things are gonna be playing deep into the playoffs. He's such
a limited playoff track record, too, which is also so bizarre. Is
there a team that is shaping up to be like your guilty pleasure to watch
or cover or talk about leading into next season. It might be the Pacers,
okay, but I don't know if it's guilty. I feel like I
don't have I don't know. I feel like in basketball you kind of got
to own up to the like weird things that you like watching, you know,
like the whether that's like players or teams. But I think the Pacers
to me are starting to kind of look a bit like that. Was it
like the twenty fourteen or like fourteen fifteen kind of Pacers that were like really
fast and fun and like super exciting to watch, Except for now, I
think they have such a better fundamental kind of base line of skill. Yeah,
I don't know. I think they will to me, like, I
want them to be that fast and fun team again. I think they deserve
to be. But I am also very intrigued by like somebody like Benedick Mathurin.
I think he's just like gonna get better. Miles Turner, I think
I'm just like to keep his name out of for one trade cycle, don't
talk about Miles Turner. Hopefully that happens. I'm a huge TJ McConnell fan,
like he's working on even somebody like DJ McConnell, like working on his
three point shooting, which is what I heard he's been doing, like going
into the off season. Like there's a lot of intrigue to me around that
team. And I also think they're kind of like eminently root forrrible or you
don't have to be like a like a lifelong Pacers fan to root for the
Pacers. They are to me maybe what the Kings were. Yeah, there
there should be a fun team. And I love Harry's Haliburton and like you
said, they are just incredibly likable. As I look. They have my
guy Atibi Topping now who might actually get to play, and so that will
be great. Yeah, it'll be like out of the like sex for Obie
to leave New York. But like probably in New York, the New York
bikes were not how Obi Topping and Vision play. I mean, yeah,
so I'm happy he gets to I was very much free Obi Topping my guilty
pleasure, and it's actually guilty because I don't necessarily want to admit that I
would like to watch them. It is the Wizards because I like that they're
rebuilding, but there's just like so much I want him in love with Blah
Coolabali. I love this wing and I think that he hit like a step
back jumper in Summer League and I fainted. I'm just like, oh,
he's gonna be a four time MVP based off everything I think he could do.
He is very cool. He's very cool. Yeah, which just like
you have Jordan Pool and Tayas Jones, and there was Monte Morris was there
for a second, Delan right still floating around there. You brought back Kyle
Kuzma, and it's I'm a big believer in Denny Avia, but how is
this going to fit in? And so there's a lot of potentially redemption arcs
placeholders, some upside there with Blah but they just I really I don't I
don't know if it's like but like, the Wizards just fascinate me. I
don't know why. And so that they would be I would question by them
as a guilty pleasure though, because I'm not going to admit that don't be
a tough watch yeah, I do like that they I do like that they
brought back out Kuzma because I really did not see that happening. But I
was like, you know what, if he's happy there and they're happy,
like that's that's all you could ask for. My predition would be that they
are absolutely going to move him by the trade deadline. That felt very much
like we didn't want to lose you. They did what the Raptors maybe should
have done. Yeah, they didn't want to keep there is there and maybe
we hit on this with Boston. Was there a transaction though that or move
or storyline this offseason that just floored you the most. I mean, Boston
didn't flore me because it's like I don't have much faith in that franchises front
office. I don't know, like and again this is not maybe on the
technical fits of the team. It's just on the more like cultural aspects for
lack of a better word, I'm just trying to be light. But that
move I think didn't make It made sense in a like very defeating way,
like like okay, here we go again kind of way to meet. Other
than that, like I have to say, most of the trades probably because
we hear about them so early in the sense of like this is this,
like this is a rumor, or like this has been reported to me,
or players just like making it clear where they want to go. I'm still
like leaving some room to be surprised by whatever happens with Dames. I think
I was surprised by doing Brooks's contract just continuously going up. Normally it's the
reverse in reporting where they give you the higher number. But he was at
like eighty and then it was eighty four, eighty six, eighty eight,
and he ended up at like, oh, it might get to ninety or
whatever. And so that was just and the way the brook Lopez stuff in
Houston unfolded, They made moves because they thought he was coming, and then
he just goes back to Milwaukee. I favored him getting his bag from the
team he wants, honestly misread of brook Lopez, who just wants to like
be comfortable and have like not have to move like he seems like the most
practical, you know, it's like I don't want to move right, And
he was on like the fringe of the entire MBA when he got the Milwaukee
So there's got to be then he goes to a runner up for Defensive Player
of the Year and champion. So yeah, I mean so I but used
it. That was That was the one that Dylan Brooks reporting and then them
really thinking maybe we're gonna get brook Lopez was which shocked me the most.
The most important one who so far is the NBA Summer Vacation Watch MVP.
Oh yeah, that is a good one. Devin Booker has been taking some
pretty good trips. What did you say? Your last one said rustic ass
trips unabated. I laughed, Yeah, I saw today though. I think
he's in Italy because he was like diving off a boat. TMC is trying
to scoop my feet and they reported him like he's on a boat with bikini
clad women say goodbye to Kendall and there's a picture of him. I'll send
it to you after diving off like a little dinghy and it looks photoshopped because
I'm like, he could not have gotten this much air and his form is
like so precise that I think they like photoshopped him diving or like his team
did and sold the photos to TMZ. But maybe he's a great swimmer and
I'm not giving him enough credit, but usually he's like rolling around on an
ATV, like up in the woods somewhere. It seems like Serge Ibacca has
always taken some pretty immaculate trips. I think last he was in Souls,
South Korea, and I don't really know why. It seemed quite mysterious.
He was just he just like posted an intersection and like geotagged, and I
was like, Serge, what are you doing there? But I would say,
like a clear MVP contender has not emerged yet. Miles Turner went away
for a really long time, like he was in Milan for fashion Week,
and then he stuck around Italy and then he was like taking some personnel trips
with like him and his GF. He went to his first like Comic Con,
which I guess it's not really a vacation, but it seemed like a
big occasion for him, and I think he's on vacation again, so he
might just be by virtue of like taking the most vacation in the running for
MVP. But usually by now there's like a clear, clear contender, and
I don't have one yet. I feel like I would have to default to
bo bon ziplining by the fault, just I didn't know that a human that
and Paul George like that might be my MVP moment of like the two friends,
like I guess every when the MBA knows each other. But when you
wrote that they like met up like a negro too, which I was just
like, maybe it was just because someone both told them both that they were
there, and it's like such a small place and like what a weird place
to meet up with someone that you're like, well, like we should have
dinner, But it looked like they had the nicest time out together, like
the best time. Another question I want to ask you. I don't know
what your title would be that would give you this power, but whatever it
is, like the Big Cheese Basketball overlord, if you could change one thing
about the way about the MBA, whether it's about the game, the way
it's covered, the way it's rooted for whatever, what would it be.
I could go like this is tough because I could go extremely serious and talk
about the changes that I would really love to see happen. But maybe I'll
say I would like chase down blocks to be given like a point system.
Oh I've never heard that before, and now I'm gonna latch onto it so
forever, like doesn't have to be a ton But like you know, one,
I think it incentivizes defense obviously, which a lot of people complain about.
Two. I love a chase down block. It's like chase down blocks
and dunks. They flip flap for me. Sometimes I'm like, no,
I just want to see chase down blocks. I don't want to see anyone
get hurt. I don't mean it like that. I want to clean chase
down block, which is the only way these points would be awarded. But
you are incentivizing maybe also the younger generation coming in play a little bit of
defense, get some extra points, or maybe it gets you too. I'm
trying to think, does it just towards your points? Does it get you
to the line, does it get you a possession? I don't know,
but it needs I think it should be rewarded in some capacity. I'd be
all for that that it maybe even block jump shots, which are really hard,
Like maybe they should have a point system like Wenby. That's like he
would just if you're making that a new category. All he has to do
is like stand I watched him at Summer League, just like standover guys like
Dracula, and he can block a shot from anywhere. That must have been
surreal seeing him in person. It was cool. It was cool. It
was more funny to listen to how disappoint in most people were watching him,
because I think everyone just wanted him to dunk and like do cool stuff,
like like a huge guy would. But like I loved watching him one just
like move around the floor, like to see him dribbling, like handling the
ball when he's like he starts from seven feet up, and to watch guys
try and figure out how they can defend him and even try and like take
a swipe at the ball when it's like it's basically being dribbled over their head.
It's like a new type of basketball being played. So I think that
was really cool. And he's a really good passer. I thought that was
fun to watch too. I only saw his bad game and I came away
from it, I'd said afterwards on the podcast. I was like everyone was
so up in arms about this. It was like I came away from that
game thinking he's gonna be one of the greatest players, Like, yeah,
so cool. It's like it's very rare to realize and see something in real
time, You're like, Oh, this is gonna change the way that basketball
gets played because of one person. Like it's invariably like they're gonna have to
adjust. Every team is going to have to adjust for this guy, and
it's going to trickle down into just like how things are going forward. That's
like, that in itself is very cool. The final thing, were you
able to do the one feeling association for each team? Are you up for
doing that? For doing it? I didn't write it down, So this
is gonna be total off the door. That's amazing. So that story,
I'm Katie. I'm asking you to give me one word to describe how you
feel about each of these NBA teams leading into next season. We begin with
the Boston Celtics bleak. There's Charlotte Hornets. Maybe should a safe bleak for
that trepidacious? Oh okay, that's a good one. The Chicago Bulls hopeful,
Oh, the Dallas Mavericks. This is more than one word, but
it's like an insight joke that everyone else knows about except for that one person.
And they're that one person. I guess the joke's on them. The
Denver Nuggets stoic, the Detroit pistonsh I'm suddenly happy that I included now that
I know how you feel about the gorgeous Houston Rockets, interesting, Golden State
Warriors, a jan the LA Clippers, intriguing, Minnesota Timberwolves, fun,
Oklahoma City thunder crafty, Orlando Magic blanking. I've already said intriguing and already
said hopeful with optimistic. Yeah, let's go with optimistic. Thanks for the
safe Philadelphia seventy six Ers, tragic San Antonio Spurs, reliable, last,
and perhaps least the Toronto Raptors. Wolf maybe just Wolf. Thank you so
much for doing that and for giving me over an hour of your time.
This was It was great picking your brain. As always, we're able to
just let our listeners know where they can find you and all the fantastic work
that you do. Of course, it was my pleasure. Thank you for
saving my brain. Just plaking on the poor like he just didn't want it.
I wanted it to be correct because I feel like there's something there.
You know, I'm not and I'm not trying to disparage that. We are
better than disparaging the magic, like we as an NBA collective. I think
have moved on from that, right, But people can find me. People
can find Basketball Feelings at Basketball Feelings dot com. You can subscribe, you
can just read it there. Uh there's a podcast that goes along with it.
If you are a paid subscriber. You can find me on Twitter at
whatev's wt evs swear I'm posting all my work. I'm on Blue Sky with
the same name. I haven't really figured out if I want to use it
yet. I'm not on threads, you know. I'm on Blue Sky,
not on threads. Yeah, one blue Sky maybe that will be the place.
Still on Twitter, be grudgingly. You can find me a dime,
but as I said before, anything i'm writing, I will be aggregating it
on Twitter. Thank you so much again and rest assured. Not only will
I be pestering you again in the future, but I will not be waiting
two years to do so. Of course anytime. I'll have to give you
the updates on the book once it's done, so we can check back in
end of the year. Very excited. Thank you,